Migrant workers leaving region unless law changed
A growing number of Southland immigrant dairy farm workers are seeking more stability and heading overseas for jobs because of visa concerns in New Zealand.
The mounting staffing pressure in the industry in the region was highlighted last week after 270 people turned out for an immigration seminar in Winton, hosted by The Regions Immigration Law and Recruitment, where they discussed an immigration stand-down policy.
New Zealand’s immigration policy requires holders of lowskilled work visa to be stood down after three years.
The policy states that, at the end of three consecutive one-year visas, the worker must leave the country for one year.
The Government has given notice that it will start enforcing the stand-down in August 2020.
Filipino farm manager Michael Pelesco, who runs a farm in Edendale and manages six staff, said four of the staff working there for their third season had been offered and were planning to take jobs in Canada because they did not have visa security in New Zealand.
‘‘We tried to convince them to stay. They think they’ll probably need to jump [ship] now.’’
Pelesco said it was stressful to think about future calvings with no staff. ‘‘It’s very hard to find staff now.’’
The Regions Immigration Law and Recruitment managing director Ben De’Ath said the Winton seminar had the biggest turnout in New Zealand during nationwide tour to the regions.
Southland Filipino dairy farm workers will be a large group affected, De’Ath said. De’Ath wants the stand-down to be scrapped and replaced with regional policies.
‘‘Rural communities are not the same as cities like Auckland. Their employment needs are different and that means policies need to reflect this.’’
De’Ath hopes an online petition calling for the scrapping of the stand-down could reach 8000 names by the time it is presented to Parliament in November. Last week, the tally was 6200.
‘‘There’s a lot of [dairy farm] workers very nervous about what could happen in August 2020,’’ he said. ‘‘The farmers and managers are saying they can’t plan for the future. Canada and Australia are trying to poach our staff.’’
In 20 years, the number of dairy cows in New Zealand had risen from 3.8 million to 6.5 million, De’Ath said. In Southland, the number of dairy cows had increased 539 per cent from 1994 to 2015, with 731,000 dairy cows now in the region.
Southland Federated Farmers dairy chairman Hadleigh Germann, who said although he was unable to attend the seminar, he was not surprised by the large turnout.
‘‘What I am most disappointed about with this policy is that it is not regionalised. Instead, regions like Southland that have significantly lower unemployment rates than the national average, and hence a much higher need for migrant workers, are treated with a blanket approach.
‘‘Although I have not employed staff on low-skilled work visas, anecdotally I have heard that employers are very worried that migrant workers are much more difficult to attract to New Zealand now because they can have much more stability in other countries.
‘‘It is sad to think that migrant workers who have been productive and respectful members of our society for three years will be made to have a stand-down period.
‘‘I also think that the herd manager position needs to be put back on the Immediate Skill Shortage list, or this list needs to be modified on a regional basis so that regions like Southland can be targeted by migrant workers.’’
Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker said a shortage of farm staff is one of the biggest issues facing the electorate.
‘‘We all want New Zealanders to be first to take the available jobs but there is simply not the ready supply of Kiwi workers, and farmers tell me if it wasn’t for the immigrant workers, they simply wouldn’t cope.’’
Walker said including herd managers in the mid-skilled range would make residency easier for many.
Labour List MP Liz Craig, of Invercargill, said several farmers had spoken to her about the difficulties they are having recruiting skilled workers.
One of the Government’s top priorities is to better match the skills that migrant workers bring with the skills needs of our industries and regions. Policy work currently under way which includes making improvements to the way the system for issuing work visas operates,’’ Craig said.
‘‘We tried to convince them to stay. They think they’ll probably need to jump [ship] now.’’
Michael Pelesco